Notes: Serena gets that fat slice of guarantee money cake, or apparently all the slices, with the No. 2 seed 30 places behind her in the rankings…Serena opens against Sesil Karatantcheva, the former French Open quarterfinalist who served a two-year ban for doping…Wildcards went to Swiss Belinda Bencic, this year’s French and Wimbledon juniors winner, and Swedes Ellen Allgurin and Rebecca Peterson…Tough draws for (5) Dominguez Lino against fellow Spaniard Medina Garriguez, (7) Soler-Espinosa vs. the veteran Razzano, and (2) Halep second round against Pennetta…Pulling from the event were Alexa Glatch, Kaia Kanepi, Magdalena Rybarikova, Yaroslava Shvedova and Venus Williams…Not participating in the event is Polona Hercog, who last year in the final defeated Mathilde Johansson for her second consecutive title…There are no former champs in the field.

Gael Monfils put in his bid for Shot of the Year.

Roger Federer romped in his grass season opener in Halle today.

Needing a wildcard to get into the event, the former Top 10er took a 2-0 sets lead on No. 5 seed Tomas Berdych, then held on to defeat the Czech 7-5 in the fifth set.

Roger Federer got another dream draw at a Grand Slam.

The long-running Davis Cup-style ATP World Team Cup is no more, this year replaced by a 250-level tournament at The Rochusclub in Düsseldorf…Tough starts for (8) Davydenko vs. Tursunov, and 2nd rd. (2) Haas vs. Dodig…Wildcards went to Benjamin Becker, Haas and Juan Monaco…Pulls from the event included Nicolas Almagro, Grigor Dimitrov, Florian Mayer, Philipp Petzschner and Mikhail Youzhny.

Gilles Simon talks about his recovery following a grueling 5-set win over countryman Gael Monfils.

The draw is out for the first Grand Slam of the tennis season and defending champion Novak Djokovic should breeze to the final weekend.

David Ferrer is already into his second semifinal of the young 2013 season while Bernard Tomic stays hot in Sydney.

Serena continues to win while Andy Murray struggled in his debut.

Now that his knee is fine Gael Monfils is targeting a return to the Top 10.

Former Slam finalists Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Caroline Wozniacki lead the title charge Sunday in pro tennis.

Wimbledon announced their 2012 player seedings.

Did Rafael Nadal just wrap up the French Open title by securing the No. 2 seeding?

(1) Isner after a bye could face X-Man, and (6) Haase starts against former No. 1 and French Open champion Ferrero; seeds Isner, Simon and Tomic make their debuts in Nice; the Bryan brothers are the top seeds in doubles; Almagro (2011) is the lone returning champ in the field, defeating Victor Hanescu in last year’s seat-emptying final.